Simple Good Food at This Amenia New American
By Charles Dubow
Photos by John A Verner
Chefs and artists have a lot in common: Both take great risks to pursue their passions, knowing full well that the odds of lasting success are crushingly long. The upside, of course, is self-fulfillment and the ability to positively impact the lives of others. That’s the risk that Jacob Somers and his fiancée, Khendum Namgyal, took when they opened their new restaurant, Panacea, in July. And so far it seems to be paying off.
“We heard that there was a restaurant space for sale in Amenia, and we came up and looked at it. We fell in love with it instantly,” says Somers. While both are veterans of New York City’s restaurant world (they met at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Café), neither of them had ever owned a restaurant—nor did they have a connection to the area. “We just knew we had to come here. The space spoke to us. So we went back to Brooklyn, and I spent the next few weeks in a coffee shop near our apartment coming up with a business plan. I then pounded the pavement looking for a bank to give us a loan, and once we did I sunk my life savings into buying the place.”
The restaurant space in question should be familiar to many diners from around Dutchess County and the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. For years it was home to Serge Madikians’ Serevan. But now, instead of serving Madikians’ unique Armenian-Iranian cuisine, Panacea offers a New American menu, with a heavy emphasis on local sourcing and hefty portions.
“I really got my cooking chops working at a ferme auberge,” which roughly translated means extreme farm-to-table, “in Alsace. I am not one of those people who believe in pretentious tasting menus. My feeling is that if you are going to pay $20 for a burger, I want you to feel you got your money’s worth. That’s my whole philosophy, really, and it’s one of the reasons we named the restaurant Panacea, which means ‘cure-all,’ because we believe a restaurant is where you should come to eat well, drink well, and leave happy.”
And Panacea’s simple, unpretentious, and reasonably priced menu succeeds in achieving those goals. Among the highlights are Namgyal’s ridiculously good fresh pastas. I was dazzled by her spaetzle with bacon, shallot, black pepper, egg yolk, and pecorino Romano, as well as her cavatappi with summer squash, charred corn, basil, and ricotta salata. Also highly recommended are the grilled oysters, mussels in white wine, a seriously good steak, and whatever is the catch of the day. And, yes, the $20 Somers Smash Burger with two patties, Gouda, lettuce, tomato, onion, and horseradish aioli on a brioche bun is definitely worth the money.
“When I was in Alsace, I was surrounded by beautiful land, lots of farms, and I lived above the restaurant,” says Somers. “It has always been my dream to find that here in America, and now I have.”
6 Autumn Ln., Amenia—panaceany.com